Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Friday, March 24, 2023 - Due to the very difficult vintage in which the producer lost most of their crop, the blend is atypically Mourvèdre-heavy this year. The wine is a blend of organically farmed Grenache (50%), Mourvèdre (40%) and Syrah (5%); the remaining 5% rounded out by a combination of Cinsault, Counoise, Muscardin and Vaccarèse. The fruit gets fully destemmed before the spontaneous fermentation. Aged in old, neutral oak foudres up to 18 months, depending on the vintage. Bottled unfiltered. 15% alcohol, 2 g/l residual sugar and 5,3 g/l acidity.

Slightly translucent black cherry color. The brooding nose feels youthful but also rather dark-toned with quite lush aromas of dark plums, some red licorice, a little bit of licorice root and garrigue, light gamey tones, a hint of peppery spice, a brambly touch of black raspberries and a whiff of kirsch. The wine feels ripe, rich and open-knit on the palate with a full body and juicy flavors of ripe blackberries and dark plums, some red licorice, a little bit of savory spices, light wild strawberry tones, a hint of kirsch and a touch of garrigue. The overall feel is a bit soft and round due to the medium acidity and ripe medium tannins along with some warmth from the rather high alcohol. The finish is ripe, a bit soft and slightly warm with a rather long aftertaste of savory spices and ripe forest fruits, some red licorice, a little bit of meaty umami, light earthy notes of garrigue, a hint of wild strawberry and a touch of juicy dark plums.

A pleasant but also rather noticeably ripe, round and soft Châteauneuf-du-Pape with nice savory overall flavor profile but with a bit too much alcohol and a bit too little acidity and tannins for such a substantial wine. I'm not sure if it's because of the higher Mourvèdre content, but in our Clos des Papes 2020-2003 vertical the wine the wine stood out stylistically from the other vintages due to its somewhat darker-toned, more savory fruit profile - the overall Clos des Papes style seemed to be a bit sweeter and more red-toned in character. However, this didn't really help the wine as it came across as too ripe, warm and soft for my preference. Even though Châteauneuf-du-Pape is stylistically a big and ripe wine, I'd still like my CdP to show a bit more freshness and structure. I guess the wine might evolve and improve to some extent with further cellaring, but I doubt this vintage will ever develop into something particularly elegant - even if the producer describes the vintage as "elegant" as opposed to the "powerful" 2019 and 2017 vintages. At 104,90€ the price doesn't really make sense.

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